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03 Oct 2012

Jason Danieley and Carmen Cusack

Photo by Bill Burlingham

Jason Danieley, of Broadway's Candide, Curtains, The Full Monty and Next to Normal, plays George in Chicago Shakespeare Theater's new production of Sunday in the Park With George, opening Oct. 3 following previews from Sept. 26. Gary Griffin directs at CST's Courtyard Theater, a three-quarter thrust venue that adds rare visual dimension to the show about art, artists and a famous canvas.

The 1983 musical rumination on making art (and its toll on an artist's personal life) has music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine. The groundbreaking show won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The Chicago production has a local angle — local color, if you will. The central visual idea in the show is French impressionist Georges Seurat's pointillist painting "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884," which hangs at the Art Institute of Chicago. Act One is about Seurat's monomania in the late 19th century, while Act Two focuses on an American artist-heir of his (also named George) who is struggling with "the art of making art" 100 years later. Danieley told Playbill.com that he viewed the painting one morning, and he was alone in the gallery. He said that he found it inspiring and emotional. At a recent promotional event, he and the cast (in full costume) sang "Sunday" at the museum in front of surprised visitors (see that video below).

Performances of Sunday in the Park With George play CST's Courtyard Theater on Navy Pier to Nov. 4.

Associate artistic director Griffin directed last season's Follies at CST, and had a hit with CST's Pacific Overtures, which traveled to London and won the Olivier Award. He also staged Broadway's The Color Purple and The Apple Tree.

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Carmen Cusack, who toured as Nellie in the Lincoln Center Theater production of South Pacific, plays Dot — Seurat's muse. In Act Two, she is Marie, the American George's grandmother.

For more about the Tony Award-winning CST, which is under the direction of artistic director Barbara Gaines and executive director Criss Henderson, visit chicagoshakes.com.

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Jason Danieley and his wife, Marin Mazzie, are among artists performing on Playbill's Broadway on the High Seas 2 Cruise to South America this December. It's sold out, but a starry 2013 cruise is now booking. Recordings featuring Danieley are available at PlaybillStore.com.

Watch the cast of CST's Sunday in the Park With George surprise visitors to the Art Institute of Chicago.